Olympic Refugee Foundation to provide new hope to displaced young people through sports

© Paul Tergat

OLYMPICS Olympic Refugee Foundation to provide new hope to displaced young people through sports

Abigael Wafula 21:04 - 10.06.2023

During the Games in 2024, the ORF will work to build a strong connection between the EOR, which it manages, and displaced communities.

The International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) will represent 100 million refugees and displaced people around the world at next year's Olympic Games in Paris.

In an Olympic Refugee Foundation board meeting, the ORF intends to use the Games to promote the inclusion of young people affected by displacement through sport.

The meeting was attended by IOC President Thomas Bach, Vice-Chair UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, and NOC-K president Paul Tergat.

After the meeting, they went to visit the ORF’s flagship programme in Paris, Terrains d’Avenir. The programme aims to provide 7,000 young people affected by displacement with access to sports by 2025 and to shape a movement that will continue to have an impact long after the Olympic Games.

In the lead-up to and during the Games in 2024, the ORF will work to build a strong connection between the EOR, which it manages, and displaced communities.

During the visit, Bach personally invited 10 displaced young people engaged in the Terrains d’Avenir programme to attend an event with him at the Games in 2024 and support the EOR.

He said: “The athletes of the Refugee Olympic Team demonstrate to a global audience that we are all part of the same humanity. Their participation in the Olympic Games is a clear signal that refugees are our fellow human beings.

"Through its work, the Olympic Refuge Foundation will connect the Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with displaced communities, and in particular refugees who live in and around Paris.”

Also announced during the Board meeting were seven new Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders. 

The seven athletes include Mahdi Ahmadian (table tennis, Iran, host NOC: Austria), Marzieh Hamidi (taekwondo, Afghanistan, host NOC: France), Yekta Jamali Galeh (weightlifting, Iran, host NOC: Germany) and Kun Waar Liem (athletics, South Sudan, host NOC: Kenya).

Kiruhura Emmanuel Ntagunga (athletics, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, host NOC: Kenya), Jamal Valizadeh (wrestling, Iran, host NOC: France), and Dorsa Yavarivafa (badminton, Iran, host NOC: Great Britain) have also been awarded the scholarship.